At least it’s not as bad as Seattle had it last weekend, but we had quite the downpour all day today. It’s the day before Norway’s biggest holiday of the year – 17th of May – their Constitution Day – so the mall was completely packed, not just because people were buying food and flowers for tomorrow when all the stores will be closed, but because it was raining and I’m sure there wasn’t much else to do. Many took off work today and some schools had free - so the mall was insane. The lines in the grocery store were immense. I only needed a few things but it took a lot of patience to get them. Uff. It’s no way to start the day.
Kory went to a meeting today with Tante Kari and Cousin Kari regarding Tante Ruth. Ruth has been in the old folk’s home for one year now and it’s customary to meet with her doctor and caregivers to go over her health issues and how things are with her once a year. She wasn’t present. Kory said they just told the family her health statistics, her blood pressure and blood count, what meds she’s on and how she’s doing. It was a bit shocking to find out she’s down to 36 kilos – less than 80 pounds. At one point she weighed 195 pounds, so she is certainly withering away. At least she has an appetite now so everyone brought her candy, as she has quite the sweet tooth. The antibiotics worked to clear up her urine infection so she’s able to sit in a chair again and feeling much better, but still looking like death warmed over. Uff.
One of our neighbors came by and introduced herself today so we invited her in for a little visit. Her daughter and grandchildren stayed in our place in March for a few nights. She’d asked Tante Kari if we would rent it out for the weekend since she didn’t have a place for them and we said we would – so she came to pay up on the rent today. She was so sweet I hated even charging her for it, but she insisted. I can’t remember her name but Kory was asking a little about herself and she said she had a “samboer” for 30 years (someone she’s been living with). She must be in her 80s. Kory asked her why she wouldn’t just get married after all these years and she said it’s because of Norway’s inheritance laws. They were both widowed with grown children when they moved in together and by law, if they were married, one third of their estates would go to their spouses and the children would get the other two thirds. She had much more money than her “samboer” so she didn’t want to have her children miss out on their full inheritance if she remarried. It’s not allowed in Norway to write a will and overrule that percentage split… so the two of them went to an empty church up on a hill in the Canary Islands and said their vows before God, exchanged rings and pronounced themselves married. They wanted God in on it but they had to leave the Norwegian government out of it - for money’s sake. Sad, but sweet. I guess there are many reasons why people don’t get married around here, that obviously being one of them.
Daniel’s dad, Are (pronounced Ar-ah), came home from the hospital today. We went over to his house to pray for him again and to bring him and Tina the leftover seafood chowder I made yesterday. I figured Tina had her hands full taking care of Are, she didn’t need to worry about what was for dinner. It was a good decision. I guess that’s not a normal thing to do here in Norway so it was nice to share some American hospitality with them. They felt blessed.
Are is looking much better today than on Saturday but he was pretty drugged up since they knew he’d be in pain from all the movement to get home. He was feeling no pain when we saw him, but that’s because he wasn’t moving. It only hurts if he moves. He’s now just supposed to heal at home and the doctor said he should be back at work in 15 days! I looked on the internet and it said it takes at least 6 weeks to heal those bones and the poor guy can’t even feed himself. Are said the Norwegian health care system won’t allow anyone to be off work for more than 15 days, no matter what their problem is, so he just has to go back after 15 days and tell them he needs more time off. That’s just how their system works. Weird. But now the stress is on Tina because he needs full time care and she has to go to work, too, so there’s a problem they’ve yet to figure out. We prayed for quick healing.
This afternoon both Kory and I took a much needed nap as Kaleb went home with Henrik after school and played for a few hours. Just before dinnertime we were treated to a marching band going down the street in front of our condo that woke us up (see photo below). The circus is in town! Right next to our condo is an empty lot where the big tent was erected this morning. Flyers appeared all over town and just in case someone didn’t see those, the marching band was preceded by kids carrying big posters pointing the way to the circus. I guess this must be a tradition that goes back to the days before modern communication techniques. It’s traditional that during Easter and 17th of May the circus comes to town for a few days so we’ll be having elephants and lions for neighbors, it seems. I prefer the little old lady that visited us this morning.
Daniel came over to spend the night tonight. There is no school tomorrow and Kaleb was bored once he got home, so we went and picked him up and the boys actually played outside for a while once the rain stopped. I said he could come over if he didn’t bring his Nintendo, so they were in a panic wondering what to do without any electronics. They managed just fine.
Kory has been drawing faces all day. He’s not very good at them so he’s trying to get better. I sure look old and fat in the one he drew of me. I think I’m in denial, so he might be better at it than I'd like.
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